A man attempted to flee police with his 3-year-old son in the car and then struck an officer as he tried to flee on foot, according to an Oxford police report.
Police were asked to watch for a silver colored Dodge Dakota pickup truck fleeing Hueston Woods park rangers at 9:53 a.m. March 10 and the driver led them on a high-speed chase over several blocks, running stop signs, while his 3-year-old child was in the vehicle.
Rangers identified the driver as a wanted person.
An Oxford officer saw the truck on Brown Road heading toward Oxford at a high rate of speed and pursued it with lights and siren activated.
The truck failed to stop at a sign at Sycamore Street, continued onto College Avenue, made a left turn without signaling onto Vine Street continuing at a high rate of speed. The vehicle continued east without stopping at stop signs at Beech and Main streets and then ignored a sign at Poplar Street where it turned left without a signal, continued to Sycamore Street, again turning left without a signal and failing to stop at a stop sign.
At Main Street, the vehicle turned right onto Morning Sun Road with the officer still pursuing with lights and siren activated. The truck turned onto Buckley Road but came to the dead-end of the road. The truck then entered a field and reversed direction, hitting a pipe or culvert causing it to go airborne and items to fly out of the bed of the pickup.
The driver finally stopped at the bridge as other officers were coming toward him.
The driver was identified as Frank Thomas Tucker, 27. He was taken into custody. While detaining Tucker, a small child was discovered in the vehicle. Tucker said it was his child, who was 3.
Tucker was handcuffed and placed in a cruiser, where he managed to get his handcuffed hands from the rear of his body to the front and began to flail around. Officers took him out attempting to reposition the handcuffs and he pushed one of the officers and attempted to flee, striking another officer in the throat with his elbow. He had to be subdued by officers.
Butler County Children Services was called for the child who was later released to his mother.
Tucker was charged with failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer, endangering children, stop sign violation, turn and stop signal violation, willful and wanton disregard and driving while suspended.
He was taken to the Butler County Jail and his vehicle was towed to the Oxford Impound Lot.